Fairfield Council is partnering with Transport for NSW on the Safer Cities: Her Way program which will see a $1 million investment in Canley Vale aiming to improve feelings of safety, particularly for women and girls in public spaces.
About the Program
Safer Cities: Her Way is investing $10 million over two years to partner with 10 selected pilot councils across NSW to help improve feelings of safety in NSW cities and towns, particularly for women and girls moving about in public spaces near transport hubs. Fairfield City Council is one of 10 pilot councils in NSW partnering with Transport for NSW on the Safer Cities: Her Way program.
The program will engage women and girls to understand their feelings of safety when using public spaces and work directly with them to co-design and trial temporary improvements to the public spaces to help them feel safer.
Safer Cities: Her Way is part of the wider Safer Cities program led by Transport for NSW.
Engage with us
We asked for feedback on your experiences of safety in public spaces in Canley Vale, and you delivered. We recently held an online webinar to present back to you the findings of engagement and input from over 250 people on our survey, interactive map, pop-ups and walkshops. The webinar outlines what you told us about your feelings of safety in Canley Vale, your suggestions for temporary public spaces improvements and the next steps on this project. Thank you to everyone that contributed to this important work.
Click below to watch the recording of this webinar.
Click here to watch the Safer Cities Webinar
Following consultation with the community, these are the main ideas that you have said will help improve feelings of safety:
- More and different types of lighting
- Temporary activations
- Improve overall look and feel
- More public artwork
- Shopfront activation and night life
- More signage and wayfinding
- More surveillance
Implementation
We have reviewed all the feedback received and developed a plan for implementation based on your suggestions. Our aim is to incorporate as many of the ideas you provided to help improve feelings of safety. Here is an outline of what we will be doing and where.
The below map shows the 3 main locations where we will be making public space improvements. For each of the locations we have shown what we will be implementing by displaying icons next to the location.
Location 1: Westacott Lane 
- Providing lighting in the laneway
- Creative painting on fencing in the pedestrian laneway
- Continuing the picket fencing surrounding the cottage
- Installing bollards and gate to designate pedestrian zone
- Installing tactile ground surface indicators (TGSI)
Location 2: Diggers Lane 
- Providing bollard lighting in the laneway
- Decorative lighting above shared pathway
- Painting on the pathway
Location 2: Adams Park
- Providing good lighting around pathways and playground
- Providing table tennis with custom painted artwork
- Providing chess board tables
- Installing more bench seating
- Installing new directional signage and shared pathway line markings
Location 4: Canley Vale Road 
- Providing accessible parklets for outdoor dining and seating options using parking spaces
- Enhancing look with customised artwork, lights, pergolas, umbrellas and planter boxes
- Creating opportunities for more people to be around and have ‘eyes on the street’ during the day and night
- Pathway areas in front of parklets will have custom artwork
Public art 
- Creating a mural along the fence line at Westacott Lane
- Providing pathway art along Diggers Lane
- Customising ping pong table with a painted artwork
- Customising parklets with artist designed decals
- Creating murals on the retaining walls at the underpass cycleway
- Creating a mural at 2 Canley Vale Rd (subject to owner’s approval)
- Providing pathway art in areas in front of parklets on Canley Vale Rd
Below is a concept design for the mural at the underpass (location 5)
Measuring our impact
An important part of this program involves assessing the impact of the public space improvements, to understand the difference these changes will make for you and your community. We have set up a community survey to gather feedback before we start work and will have another survey to collect your feedback after the works have been completed.
Thank you for your feedback provided before works started. We will be back with a new survey soon!
Photo gallery
See below photos from some of our engagement activities:
Emergency Support